Posts by Matt Sarrel

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“Big data” is the buzzword of 2012, and along with the hype comes anxiety for business executives trying to decipher fact from chatter. In this session, the IBM Institute for Business Value will present the findings from its fact-based global study on the journey organizations are taking to achieve business value from big data. Based on a survey of more than 1100 business and IT executives, combined with executive interviews and case studies, the key findings will highlight the phases of the big data journey, the objectives and challenges of organizations taking the journey, and a current state of technology they are using to drive results.

This session will take a deep look at the findings you’ve heard briefly about in the IOD keynotes and business leadership sessions. These findings will establish the benchmarks that define the big data era ahead.

The survey itself is very interesting because it informs you as to the activities that big data leaders feel are important within their organizations. At the very end of the report, there is a section that recommends steps to take when building a big data analytics program. The tips contained in that section are concrete and helpful.

For example, building a big data program is broken out into four steps: Educate, Explore, Engage, and Execute.

Here is how activities and objectives break out:

• Educate – building awareness, knowledge and skills. Trying to better understand how big data can help address important business opportunities, some pilot projects but not a full big data implementation
• Explore – develop a roadmap for big data development. Formal, ongoing discussions with various business leaders to determine the business value of big data. Building quantifiable business cases.
• Engage- prove the business value of big data, assess technologies and skills, develop proof-of-concept, articulate expected returns to leadership.
• Execute – big data and analytics capabilities are widely operationalized and implemented within the organization. Leveraging big data to transform business, realizing anticipated business value.

As the 2012 IBM Institute for Business Value survey indicates, big data analytics is evolving. More and more companies see the power of building big data solutions to better understand and optimize various aspects of the business. Sixty-three percent of survey respondents in 2012 report that the use of information (including big data) and analytics is creating a competitive advantage for their organizations. This represents a seventy percent increase since IBM’s 2010 New Intelligent Enterprise Global Executive Study and Research Collaboration. Executives are becoming more data driven and systems are being built to make recommendations based on data such as current market conditions, supply chain, customer sentiment, and more. Big data analytics is becoming a core component of many enterprise IT departments.

Organizations at the forefront of big data analytics continuously re-evaluate and re-define the strategic decisions that have gotten the company where it is today. More than three-quarters of survey respondents indicated that they use analytics to guide future strategy. Many organizations manage strategic risk using big data analytics programs to provide better line of sight into the organization and its markets. This allows them to develop the ability and processes to anticipate and act ahead of events that might derail corporate progress.

The IBM Institute for Business Value partnered with the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford to conduct the 2012 Big Data @ Work Study, surveying 1,144 business and IT professionals in 95 countries, and interviewing more than two dozen academics, subject matter experts and business executives. This is the third year in a row that IBM has conducted the survey, so it holds some insight into ongoing trends in big data.

Big data doesn’t exist in a void. Collect all the data you want and without analytics capacity it won’t have much value. A good analytics program requires a combination of software, developers, and the skills and knowledge to use them. In a recent survey conducted by IBM, more than 75 percent of respondents reported using core analytics capabilities such as query, reporting, and data mining. More than sixty-seven percent reported using predictive modeling.

This year’s survey finds an increased importance being placed on driving customer engagement with big data analytics. Find out what analytics leaders are doing to spearhead this effort within their organizations.

Since 2010, the IBM Institute for Business Value and MIT Sloan Management Review have fielded a study gathered from interviews with more than 4,500 managers and executives. These studies provide insight into how IT leaders can develop analytics programs that are successful. And by successful, I mean programs that provide information and assistance that can be used to power a data driven business.